The 29th Annual Jackson County Industrial Trade Show will be held on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at the B.E. “Mac” McGinty Civic Center (2902 Shortcut Road) in Pascagoula on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The one day event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Ribbon Cutting will be held at 9:00 a.m. that morning in the Fair Hall next to the Civic Center. The Chairwoman of this year’s event is Melanie Landsiedel of Chevron. This event is open to the business community working in the industrial field. Sponsorships, booths and wall space advertising are now available through the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.

Sponsorship opportunities are available for companies looking to be featured at this event. Indoor and outdoor booth spaces are also available to companies with reduced rates for members of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. Those looking to join the Chamber between January and February can receive a free outdoor booth with their membership.

Businesses are encouraged to put aside time on this day and allow their employees working in procurement, management, engineering and other industrial fields to attend the event. Participants are also encouraged to invite their business network to attend this show—regionally, nationwide and worldwide. This show is open to the business community. The Jackson County Industrial Trade Show allows businesses of all sizes and many classifications to promote their products and services to other local businesses in one location. The trade show provides the environment of face to face interaction where attendees learn about new and existing products and opportunities.

The Jackson County Industrial Trade Show is one of many examples of economic and community support in the area throughout the year. Additionally, the Jackson County Industrial Suppliers Association (ISA) meets every other month at the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. The ISA is sponsored by the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber’s Small Business Issue Manager Group. Programs are designed to provide ideas and information that give businessmen additional resource knowledge and new business opportunities.

Contact the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce for information on attending or being featured at an ISA meeting, participating in the Jackson County Industrial Trade Show and general Chamber membership information. Call 228-762-3391 or email Linda Johnson at JohnsonL@jcchamber.com. The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is located at 720 Krebs Avenue in Pascagoula. More information can be found online at www.jcchamber.com.

PASCAGOULA – NAACP Moss Point-Jackson County Branch partnered with Chevron Pascagoula Refinery to host a breakfast reception and presentation with the Honorable Andrew Young on February 6. Young is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. An early leader in the civil rights movement, he later became active in politics—serving first as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and, finally, Mayor of Atlanta.

Over 200 people attended, including about 20 students from Magnolia Middle School in Moss Point. Chevron partnered with the NAACP to bring Young to speak about his experiences and remaining positive in the face of adversity.

Alan Sudduth, Chevron Public and Government Affairs Manager for Mississippi, welcomed the audience Then Reggie Aaron, Chevron engineer and leader of refinery’s Black Employee Network, introduced Young. for his keynote address.

“I’ve been around a long time and I’ve seen a lot of things,” Young said, “and it upsets me when people say things are no better now than they were back in the 60s.

“Even though things are so much better, they’re still not perfect. So what I try to do is help us understand where we are…. I lived in New Orleans in the middle of a block with an Irish grocery store on one corner, an Italian bar on another, the Nazi Party was on the third corner—and they were hailing Hitler. I was born in 1932, this was about 1936, and I remember it because the way my father explained to me about racism was to take me to the segregated movie to see Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. And he says about the white supremacists who were in the Nazi Party, who were hailing Hitler 50 yards from where I was born, that white supremacy is a sickness. And you don’t let sick people get you upset—you don’t get mad with sick people. He was a dentist, and he said, when people wake me up in the middle of the night with their teeth hurting, I don’t get mad, I try to fix them.

“You don’t ever get mad with people who are sick. And he said ‘don’t get mad, get smart. If you lose your temper in a fight, you lose the fight.

“Things are changing—and one of the things that we learned as children is the world is everchanging, but God is still the same. So order my steps, and I will praise your name! Now, if that’s where we’re coming from, the world has never been as good as it is today.”

Closing remarks were delivered by Curley Clark, President of the Moss Point-Jackson County NAACP.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that six employees from its Newport News Shipbuilding division were recognized for achievements in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields during the 32nd annual Black Engineer of the Year Award STEM Global Competitiveness Conference. The conference was held last week in Washington, D.C.

Gregory Braxton, a computer systems security analyst, received the Linda Gooden Legacy Award, which is named after the former president of Lockheed Martin Information Technology. Gooden, who was one of the most respected business leaders in defense and aerospace during her 40-year career, also was BEYA’s 2006 Black Engineer of the Year recipient.

Braxton was honored for his efforts to engage local educational institutions, including the Hampton Roads Cybersecurity Education, Workforce and Economic Development Alliance, in developing cybersecurity talent pipelines. He provides an industry perspective on the cybersecurity curriculum, assists the capture cybersecurity curriculum development grants and builds cyber-awareness among local high school students.

Five other Newport News employees received Modern Day Technology Leader awards, which recognize their efforts in shaping the future of engineering, science and technology. They include:

Our Business of the Week is Crazy B’s Coffee & Confections in Pascagoula! Lately, they’ve been busy making King Cakes in addition to their other delicious pastries and coffee drinks. You’ll recognize their beautiful King Cakes from our current King Cake giveaway!

Crazy B’s offers a variety of hot, iced and frozen coffee drinks, teas and smoothies. They have fresh baked cookies, muffins and pastries along with specialty candies and other sweets. They are now serving Kolaches in a variety of flavors and chicken salad sandwiches on croissants.

“I love being a part of the growing Jackson County and Pascagoula business community! We enjoy our customers as much as we enjoy making crazy confections! We are so proud of the support we’ve received and look forward to many years more with the Crazy B’s family!” said Susan Kendrick, Owner/Pastry Chef.

Pascagoula attorney Karl Steinberger was recently honored as the 2017 Lawyer of the Year and as one of the Top 40 Leaders in Law by the Mississippi Business Journal. Steinberger, who is a shareholder and director at Heidelberg, Steinberger P.A., was selected for his outstanding efforts and accomplishments in the legal practice.

“I’m very fortunate and quite humbled to be named as a leader in the legal profession and honored to be recognized with some of the state’s best attorneys,” said Steinberger. “For over 40 years, I’ve worked to represent my clients’ best interests and am thankful for a career which I’ve helped many people and different organizations.”

Steinberger has been consistently recognized as an Outstanding Lawyer of America and as a Mid-South Super Lawyer. He is an active member of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and serves as the President of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. In the past, he also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Mississippi Bar Association.

Steinberger has been practicing law in Pascagoula since 1976. His specialty is employment law and workers compensation, and he also focuses on insurance defense, products liability, personal injury and wills and estates.

He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Adults and children interested in popular music, theater and dance can learn more about the improved Rock U 2 Academy of Popular Music at its grand opening and open house this weekend.

From 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16, Rock U 2 will open its new location at 2820 Government St. in Ocean Springs.

Tim Alamsha, who owns the business along with his wife, Barbara, said while Rock U 2 has been in Ocean Springs since May 2011, the new location grows their space from about 3,000 square feet to about 9,000 square feet.

“This time last year, we had around 90 students,” Alamsha said. “Now we have more than 200.”

Alamsha has spent his life in the entertainment business. He and his wife began their careers as performers/entertainers, and starting in 1990, he worked for Disney where he was responsible for parades and other shows. After his time at Disney, he worked as the director of entertainment for Universal Studios.

After visiting the Gulf Coast, he said he fell in love with the area and wanted to see what programs were available for children when it comes to popular music.

“We decided to start something more interactive than just private lessons and practicing in your bedroom,” Alamsha said. “We aim to teach students about things like goal-setting, teamwork and building self-esteem all through music, dance and theater.”

Alamsha said the new location contains nine individual rooms, two group rehearsal rooms, a dance studio, recording studio, video editing studio and more. He said he also plans to add a fitness center and space for theater acting in the future.

“This is a great opportunity to see the new facility,” Alamsha said. “It will be a lot of fun, people can meet the instructors, try out free dance classes and more.”

Rock U 2 Academy of Popular Music offers a variety of classes for children and adults, ranging from theater and film to all types of dance and music lessons on instruments ranging from the ukulele, french horn and more. Alamsha said that the academy also offers an extra unique opportunity to students.

“We pair students up within similar instruments, skills levels, etc., and create bands with them,” Alamsha said. “They perform at the Hard Rock or through our quarterly recitals.”

Midgett (WMSL 757) joins Bertholf, Waesche, Stratton, Hamilton, James, Munro and Kimball as the eighth Legend-class National Security Cutter built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. The Legend-class plays an important role in enhancing the Coast Guard’s operational readiness, capacity and effectiveness at a time when the demand for their services has never been greater. A Legend-class cutter carries enough food and consumables to stay at sea for 60 days and has the ability to conduct replenishment and refuel at sea in order to extend patrols.

Midgett (WMSL 757) is named in honor of 10 members of the Midgett family who earned seven gold and three silver Lifesaving Medals for their heroic deeds and decades of service. “We often speak of our service as a family, our Coast Guard family,” said Adm. Charles Michel, vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, who was the ceremony’s keynote speaker. “The Midgett name takes that seriously with a family legacy unprecedented in the armed services, a family that is all about service before self. Such a special name deserves to be emblazoned on a special platform. The Ingalls Shipbuilding team have built this incredible platform, something to be incredibly proud of and something the men and women of the United States Coast Guard take very proudly.”

Hospital auxiliary volunteers for both Singing River Hospital and Ocean Springs Hospital have elected and installed their 2018 slate of officers to lead more than 100 Singing River Health System volunteers.

At Ocean Springs Hospital, Sharron Kirk will serve as Auxiliary President, joined by Henry Williams, Vice President; Donna Borries, Recording Secretary; Dianne Gish, Treasurer; and Dortha Durso, Corresponding Secretary. Nettie Phillips was named Volunteer of the Year for the Ocean Springs Hospital Auxiliary.

In addition, each hospital auxiliary group presented their “Auxiliary Volunteer of the Year Award” for 2017. At Ocean Springs Hospital, Nettie Phillips received the award, and Elouise Bell received the award at Singing River Hospital.

Auxiliary volunteers at both hospitals provide thousands of service hours every year in multiple service areas, providing hospitality, comfort and assistance to patients and guests. Both groups welcome applications for new volunteers, with information available on the Singing River Health System website at https://www.singingriverhealthsystem.com/about-us/volunteer/.

If you haven’t finished (or even started) your holiday shopping, consider visiting a local store in your community on Saturday, Nov. 25, for Small Business Saturday.

Small Business Saturday is an American shopping holiday held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year.

First observed in the United States on November 27, 2010, as an advertising campaign created for American Express, it is a counterpart to the all-popular Black Friday and upcoming Cyber Monday, which feature big retailers like Target or Best Buy and e-commerce stores, respectively. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to visit small brick-and-mortar businesses in their local areas.

According to American Express, an estimated 112 million consumers reported shopping at small businesses during the 2016 Small Business Saturday, up 13 percent from the year before. In addition, more shoppers reported visiting local independent businesses in 2016 more than ever before, and a record high of 72 percent of U.S. consumers were aware of the day.

For local businesses, however, the recognition of shopping small means much more than the sales.

Mickie Miller, who owns Two Dogs Dancing, a pet store in downtown Ocean Springs, said that she thinks more people are starting to see the benefits of shopping locally even outside of Small Business Saturday.

“The difference in shopping locally versus online is you’re able to walk in and try things on,” Miller said. “You can buy unique items and take them home with you that day.”

Miller said many of the items she features in her store cannot be found at big-box stores like Target, and that’s an extra benefit to shopping locally. She added that shopping locally adds a personal approach to shopping all year-round.

“If you come into my store, I can tell you everything about every single item,” Miller said. “I can help you find all the items and give you recommendations. It’s more of a personal connection.”

“People love to feel connected,” Miner said. “It’s satisfying to get back in your car and feel good and to know those people cared that you came into their store.”

After 30 years of owning Miner’s Doll and Toy Store, Miner said another benefit of shopping local is continuity.

“We’re here,” Miner said. “We’re always here. You can come and you’ll always find some good stuff. People know they can count on us.”

Miner said that the store also provides free gift wrapping, meaning people can come in, find a gift, have it wrapped for free and be out the door and on their way to a party. It’s special touches like these, she said, that keep people shopping locally.

Miner said that while bigger box stores and online shopping have their place, it’s all about people creating a balance of where they shop. She stressed that supporting local business is not only good for the businesses but for the community as a whole.

“We do depend on people coming in to shop,” Miner said. “It’s really worth it for people to make an effort to support their local business. We donate to the local charities, and we’re here for the community. It’s an investment for all of us to have that continuity of these stores. We’re really the treasures.”

The next generation in Operating Room safety and efficiency is making its nationwide debut in Jackson County, MS with the delivery of the “OR Cockpit” software suite at Singing River Health System.

The OR Cockpit is a revolutionary interoperability software system that monitors all facets of an operating room to optimize patient safety, OR efficiency and infection control with real time analytics and reporting throughout a surgical procedure. The system was installed in the OR Suites at Singing River Health System’s Ocean Springs Hospital as a Beta Test site, the first in the United States.

Developed by New Compliance, USA, the OR Cockpit was developed in The Netherlands and has been successfully deployed in hospitals across Europe. The system ties into the hospital’s electronic medical records data and uses giant touchscreens, air quality monitors, timers and electronic checklists to provide constant feedback to the OR team on procedure specific patient safety, infection risk and environmental conditions. “We are very excited to bring our OR Cockpit+ Suite solution online at our first US hospital location in Ocean Springs. Working together with the hospital and our US distributor Skytron, our company’s mission is to protect patients and empower medical staff by
bringing hospitals smart, interoperable real-time information technology” said New Compliance CEO Bo Wiesman. “With this first project at Singing River Health System we mark the start of an exciting patient safety journey into the US healthcare market.”

Singing River Health System is already nationally ranked for medical excellence and patient safety in a number of surgical specialties, and the surgery team did not hesitate to be the first in the US to install the OR Cockpit. “We jumped at the opportunity to help test this new technology,” says Tiffany Murdock, Executive Director of Surgical Operations for Singing River. “It’s another tool we can use to assure the absolute highest quality care for our patients, and we’re excited to show the rest of the country what we can do with this technology. While there’s no substitute for human skill, the OR Cockpit gives us real time data for better decision making and better care.” Murdock expects to deploy the technology to all of the system’s operating rooms in the near future.

To launch the system in the United States, New Compliance has partnered with the Skytron Company, a global healthcare equipment and technology provider, as its exclusive US distribution channel.

“Singing River Health System’s focus on continuous improvement and their long term vision fit well with our core values and our efforts to help leaders in healthcare achieve the highest utilization of their people, their facilities and their capital,” says Dave Mehney, CEO of Skytron. “They’re a perfect partner as a US pilot site for the OR Cockpit Solution.”

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Capturing and highlighting the great things Jackson County, Mississippi has to offer. From environment to education to endeavors of our residents, @jaxcohome is HOME to all things good.